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| Barnaby Joyce: Scandal-hit Australia deputy PM to resign | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Barnaby Joyce says he will resign as Australia's deputy prime minister following a politically damaging saga that began with his affair with a former staffer. | Barnaby Joyce says he will resign as Australia's deputy prime minister following a politically damaging saga that began with his affair with a former staffer. |
| Mr Joyce said he would step down on Monday as leader of the Nationals, the junior government partner. | |
| Mr Joyce had resisted calls to quit amid questions over whether he had breached ministerial rules. | |
| He called his decision on Friday a "circuit-breaker". | |
| "This current cacophony of issues has to be put aside," he told reporters. | |
| Mr Joyce is perhaps best-known for once threatening to kill Johnny Depp's dogs over a quarantine violation, and for briefly losing his job over his New Zealand dual citizenship last year. | |
| On Friday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull thanked Mr Joyce for being a "a fierce advocate for rural and regional Australia". | |
| The political scrutiny of Mr Joyce has dominated Australian headlines for more than two weeks. | |
| Last week, Mr Turnbull publicly criticised Mr Joyce's "shocking error of judgement" and said ministers would be banned from having sex with their staff. | |
| Mr Joyce responded by calling Mr Turnbull's comments "inept" and "unnecessary", but insisted the pair could still work together. |